Apparatus for marine construction



y E. M. WICHERT 2,079,889 I APPARATUS FOR MARINE CONSTRUCTION Filed 0ct.'27, 1934 4Sheets-Sheet k l 'IH'HI .1 H

Ill "MINI I ll" II ls v WW: I! my agwm May 11, 1937- E. M. WICHERT 2,079,889

APPARATUS FOR MARINE CONSTRUCTION Filed Oct. 27, 1934 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 lmmalh' INVENTOR EM M W M,

4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Oct. 27, 1934 NINVENTOR May ll, 1937. E. M. WICHERT APPARATUS FOR MARINE CONSTRUCTION .Filed'oct. 27, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented May 11 1937 UNEE 2,079,889 APPARATUS FOR MARINE CONSTRUCTION Application October 27, 1934, Serial No. 750,375

11 Claims.

This invention relates to apparatus for marine construction. This application is in part a continuation of my copending application Serial No. 695,110, filed October 25, 1933, and in part a continuation of my copending application Serial No. 708,992, filed January 30, 1934, and which eventuated in Patent No. 2,009,461, granted July 30, 1935, in which there is described and claimed a method of making marine structures compris ing placing piles in the marine bottom and projecting upwardly therefrom, placing a bell or the like over the piles, applying pressure in the bell to lower the water level therein in an amount sufficient to expose normally submerged portions of the pile, and forming a cap around the exposed portions as by casting concrete while the lowered water level is maintained. According to this method it is possible to make a pier or other marine structure of the highest quality 20 at relatively low cost. My improved marine structure is more fully described and claimed in my copending application Serial No. 750,376, filed October 2'7, 1934. The present invention relates to certain features of construction in the 25 chamber or bell which I have just referred to, but it will be understood that it has other uses.

An apparatus of this sort, in order to be commercially feasible, must be capable of ready and efficient handling, must function satisfactorily under the severe conditions of Service to which it is put. For practical use the apparatus is likely to be of large size and weight, but despite such size it must be placed over the piles upon which the marine structure is to be built. It is important that this be accomplished without any unduly large use of temporary piles or other extraneous supporting means. Diving bells, as heretofore constructed, would be unsatisfactory in most cases for my purpose because if made of a size for the making of marine structures of the dimensions required for bridges, for example, they would be so large and unwieldy as to render their use commercially unfeasible. My improved apparatus is provided with an opening in one of its side walls and is also arranged with float chambers so that it can be floated to and over the piles but with practically no more maneuvering than is required in the handling of any large floating body. The opening which permits the apparatus to be floated over the piles is provided with a door that can be closed off and pneumatically sealed to permit of building up air pressure within the working chamber.

The internal pressure sets up forces of considerable magnitude and I provide a tying means connecting those portions of on opposite Provision STATES PATENT OFFICE the apparatus lying sides of such opening. This insures distortion of the apparatus built up'within it.

is also made for the ready handling of materials into and within the apparatus. Other features of the invention are more fully described in connection with the description of the' present preferred form of the apparatus illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in

which- Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section through the apparatus;

Figure 2 is a transverse section;

Figure 3 Figure 4 is an end View, partly broken away; is a diagrammatic view illustrating Figure 9 is a section taken on of Figure 3; and

Figure 10 is a section of Figure 9.

Referring first to Figures 1 to 4 inclusive, the

apparatus shown consists of a pair of chambers 2 and 3 spaced apart to provide a working chamber 4 between them. The chamber 4 has a top wall 5, an end wall 6 and an end wall I having a door opening 8 therein. The several parts of the apparatus are of structural steel and plate construction, and the chambers 2 and 3 are of such size that the entire apparatus will float. The opening 8 has a door 9 which slides vertically, being raised and lowered by chain blocks 10 carried by a cross beam II at the top of the apparatus. When it is desired to use the apparatus it is floated into position with the door 9 raised. vIn Figures 1 and 2 I have shown clusters of piles P extending into the marine bottom and projecting upwardly to a this is not required for large marine structures. With the feasible in a structure of the size door 9 raised, the apparatus may be maneuvered in the water so as tofloat it in position over the piles.

At this time the water within the the line IX-IX taken on the line X-X point adjacent the water chamber 4 is at the same level as the body of water in which the apparatus is floating, and before the work is done on the marine structure it is necessary to close off the opening 8 and to lower the water level within the chamber to such point as would expose those portions of the piles about which it is desired to form the cap. The first of these requirements is met by closing the door 9 and making adequate provision for its sealing. The second is met by increasing the air pressure within the apparatus and, in most cases, to submerge it as a whole to greater depth. Figure 4 diagrammatically illustrates this latter point, where the chambers 2 and 3 are each shown as provided with intake pumps l2 whereby water may be taken into the chambers 2 and 3 for the purpose of partially overcoming their buoyancy, thereby causing the apparatus to sink to any desired level. Discharge pumps l3 are provided for removing the water from the chambers 2 and 3 when it is desired to increase the buoyancy of the apparatus. An air compressor is indicated at M for supplying air under pressure to the chamber l. It will be noted from Figure 4 that the apparatus is quite deeply submerged and the water level is lowered therein by internal air pressure to such point that the tops of the piles are exposed. Figure 4 also illustrates a temporary platform I5 built around the piles P, which platform constitutes the bottom of a cap mold. The rest of the mold may be built up out of wood or it may be of a more or less permanent character, as indicated at I 6, and suspended from the top of the chamber 4 by pulley blocks IT. This arrangement permits of raising and lowering the mold Hi. When out of use it can hang at or near the top of the chamber and when the apparatus is in place it can be lowered into position on the platform l5 while a cast is made. The chamber 4 is provided along its sides with working platforms l8, material storage racks l9, and a travelling hoist 20 for convenience to the workmen. Provision is also made for illuminating the inside of the chamber and for telephone communication to the outside. Ordinarily all of the materials requiredfor making the platform and the form will be placed within the chamber before the door 9 is closed. The workmen will have access to the chamber through an air lock 2!. This lock and similar additional ones, not shown on the drawing, may be used to provide for the admission and removal of material, supplies and tools. Concrete for the cap will be previously mixed and supplied from the outside through openings 22 having discharge chutes 23. The hoppers will be suitably valved to prevent loss of air pressure within the chamber, and pressure connections 24 are provided to apply additional force to the concrete to cause it to fiow from the openings 22 when a pour is being made. Figure 2 shows a valve mechanism indicated generally at 25, whereby the hoppers 22 can be closed off from the inside of the chamber at a time when the same are to be filled with concrete, or connected to it after their covers 22a have been put on and it is desired to have the concrete flow from the hoppers into the chutes 23.

As above stated, provision must be made for pneumatically sealing the door 9. a The construction of the door and the sealing mechanism therefor is best shown in Figures 3 and 5 to. 9 inclusive. It consists of a metal sheet 26 stiffened by vertical beams 21 and horizontal beams 28, the assembled structure being quite rigid. so that there will be no appreciable deflection when air pressure is applied within the chamber 4. Each of the chambers 2 and 3 is provided at its corners adjacent the opening 8 with a guide member 29 having a vertical slot 30 therein to accommodate the edge portion 34 of the door. This edge portion is in itself quite rigid, being made up of a flange of the vertical beam 21, the sheet 25 and plates 26a.

The outer faces of 'the beam flange and the exposed faces of the plate 26a are both smooth and finished, as are the corresponding faces of the slot 30. There is enough clearance within the slot 30 so that the door can be raised and lowered freely despite any deflections which may take place in the body as a whole due to wave motions, unequal loading, or the like. A gasket 35 is secured to the beam 2! and when air pressure is applied within the chamber the edges of the door seat against the outer portion of the slot with sufficient pressure to insure an adequate air seal. If desired, a similar gasket 36 may be provided between the edge of the door and the inner face of the slot 30. This gasket performs no function in sealing the apparatus against loss of internal pressure, but I contemplate that in use of the apparatus for pile testing purposes, as hereinafter described, it may be desirable to reduce the pressure in the chamber 4 to below atmospheric, in which case it is necessary to seal the door against ingress of atmospheric air. The gasket 36 serves this purpose.

The top of the door must also be sealed if leakage of air is to be avoided. As a practical matter it is diflicult if not impossible to provide a fixed slot at the top of the door opening, to have the door slide bodily up and down through it and to provide sealing all around such slot. The difiiculty lies in the fact that the door is of considerable size and must be very stiff to avoid deflection. When the door is designed to meet these requirements it is so large that a slot sufficiently large to accommodate it would require a very expensive and unwieldy structure, one of such dimensions that it would be difficult to adequately seal it. I therefore provide a top sealing mechanism which cooperates with the door to effect sealing when the door is in its lowered position but which, instead of being fixed, is movable up and down with the door.

The door is provided across its top with ledge members 3? and 38 having gaskets 39. The ledge member 31 seats through the medium of the gasket 39 on a ledge member 46 fixed to the end wall l of the chamber. As shown in Figure 5,

the door structure lies to the left of the ledge member 3? and can be raised and lowered without interference with the stationary ledge member 46. A more difficult problem arises in providing a ledge member tocooperate with the ledge member 38. This cooperating member is in the form of a box-like cross beam ll having a ledge 42 formed thereon to cooperate with the gasket 39 and also with the gasket 35a which extends across the top of the door and is integral with the vertically extending gasket portion 35. The cross beam 4| has openings 43 therein through which extend eye-bars 44 constituting part of the supporting linkage for the door. The eye-bars 44 are connected at their upper ends to equalizers 45, which equalizers are also connected through clevises 46 to the top of the metal sheet 26. The equalizers are connected through hooks 4'! to the falls of the chain blocks Ill. H

The cross beam 4| has a limited amount of vertical movement relative to the door but is intended to be raised and lowered therewith. However, when the door is in the lowered position the cross beam 4| is directly supportedby the structure as a whole so that the gasket 39 will be compressed and sealing will be effected. Each of the chambers 2 and 3 is provided onvits outer surface with a socket member 48 (see Fi ures 6 and 8) having a slot 39 to receive a tongue formed on each end of the cross beam ll. When the door is raised the tongues 50 are lifted out of the slots 49 and the cross beam. 4! is lifted with the door. When the door is lowered, the tongues 59 re-enter the slots t9 and when cross beam M has come to rest on the seat provided on 29 near its. upper end, the downward movement of the cross beam 4| ceases and the beam is held rigidly in position. The lowering movement of the door is continued until the weight is taken off the chain blocks in and is received by the gaskets, thus efiecting adequate sealing.

Since the chamber 4 is necessarily open in the bottom in order for the apparatus to function at all, and since the end opening 8 must form a continuation of the bottom opening if the apparatus is to be floated into position around fixed structures such as the piles P, it will be seen that those ends of the chambers 2 and 3 which are adjacent the opening 8 are not connected at their lower portions and hence when air pressure is built upwithin the chamber 4, or in case. the air is exhausted therefrom, there is a strong force tending to cause relative movement of the chambers 2 .and 3. In view of the large surface areas involved the forces thus created are of serious magnitude, and if they are not adequately met they may give rise to leakage around the edges of the door and may also strain the apparatus as a whole. If adequate bracing or tying is provided at this end of the structure it is possible to materially lighten the cross members at the top of the apparatus and the design problem is otherwise simplified. I employ a tie bar 5! which preferably is located adjacent the normal water level of the apparatus, that is to say, the water level when the chambers 2 and 3 are empty and the apparatus with its ordinary load is equipped for floating freely. It is in this position when the door is lowered, and by providing the tie rod at or adjacent to the water level it is possible for the workmen to make adjustments thereon, and at the same time it is sufficiently near the bottom of the apparatus that adequate tying is obtained. The rod 5! is of large size and consequently very heavy (in an apparatus of commercial size it may be 4 to: 6 inches in diameter). Therefore in order to handle it conveniently I support it from the door 9. To this end the vertical beams 27 have openings 52 therein in which the rod 5| loosely fits. The rod is provided with collars 53 which provide a. limited amount of endwise movement relative to the door. The projecting ends 54 of the rod 5| lie in brackets 55 when the door is in its lowered position and serve to tie the chambers 2 and 3 together. The brackets 55 are of very rugged constructon and are secured to the end faces of the chambers 2 and 3. Each bracket has a slot 55 therein with a flaring mouth 51 to freely receive the. tie rod, and back of the slot 55 is a recess 58 of sufficient size to receive a nut 55 on the end of the tie rod and thrust collars 60. The thrust collars 60 have mating spherical faces so that despite any minor errors of positioning or any slight relative deflections of the various parts of the structure the rod 5! will be free of bending stresses. The inner end faces of the slot 56 and particularly the mouth portion 51 thereof are tapered as indicated at 5! in Figure 9 so that the thrust collars 85 will slide smoothly into place. In use the nuts 59 will be adjusted so that there is a very small clearance between the collars GI) and the ends of the slots 56. Therefore when the rod is in its lowered position there can be only a trivial amount of movement of the chambers 2 and 3 away from one another when air pressure is applied within the chamber 4. The nut 59 is castellated and is held in adjusted position by a cross pin 62. i

In case the pressure in chamber 4 is lower than atmospheric pressure the resulting thrust of the ends of chambers 2 and 3 against each other will be taken up by the door itself, the bottoms of slots 35 resting against the side edges of the door.

In certain cases it may be desirable to test the load bearing capacity of the piles. My apparatus makes it possible to do this very conveniently.

In Figures 1 and 2 I have illustrated seats 63 on top of the piles P adapted to engage the lower ends of struts fi lextending into pockets 65 formed in the chambers 2 and 3 and having their upper ends engaged by hearing members 66. In F;

use the struts are positioned as shown and the chambers 2 and 3 are partially or entirely filled with water so as to subject the piles to loading. Further loading may be produced by placing ballast on the deck or filling the top'of the apparatus with water, for which purpose the sides have been extended all around. And still more loading may be had by reducing the air pressure within the chamber 4 so as to raise the water level therein above the normal water level. Any settlement of the piles under load can be readily determined and their hearing quality thus ascertained.

The apparatus is held rigidly in position during such testing by means of horizontal cross struts 6'1, longitudinal struts 68 and diagonal ties 69. This method of testing and the apparatus for carrying out the same are more fully described and claimed in my copending application Serial No. 750,376, filed October 27, 1934.

I have illustrated and described a present preferred embodiment of my invention, but it is to be understood that this is by Way of illustration only and that the invention may be otherwise embodied or practiced within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In an apparatus of the character described and having a chamber with an opening in a wall thereof, a sliding door having a transverse sealing ledge, and a cross member having a sealing face adapted to cooperate with the ledge, the cross member being movable with the door but adapted to be held in fixed position for effecting sealing engagement with the door when it is in closed position.

2. In an apparatus for the character described and having a chamber with an opening in a wall thereof, a sliding door having a transverse sealing ledge, a cross member having a sealing face adapted to cooperate with the ledge, the cross member being movable with the door and being also capable of limited movement relative thereto, and means for effecting such relative movement.

3. In apparatus of the character described and having :a chamber with an opening in a wall thereof, a sliding door having a transverse ledge, a cross member having a sealing face cooperating with the ledge, and supporting members secured to the chamber and adapted to engage and support the cross member to efie'ct a sealing engagement between the cross member and the ledge.

4. Apparatus of the character described comprising a body having a top and side walls arranged to form a chamber, the chamber having an opening at the bottom and also having 'an opening in a side, a closure for the side opening, tie receiving means on each side of the opening, and a removable tie extending across the body from one receiving means to the other for securing together the portions on opposite edges of the side opening.

5. Apparatus of'the character described comprising a body having a top and side walls arranged to form a chamber, the chamber having an opening at the bottom and also having an opening in a side, a closure for the side opening, tie receiving means on each side of the opening, and a removable tie remote from the top of the body, the tie extending across the body from one' receiving means to the other for securing together the portions on opposite edges of the side opening.

6. Apparatus of the character described comprising a body having a top and side walls and arranged to float partly in and partly out of the water, the walls forming a chamber having an opening at the bottom and also having an opening in a side, a closure for the said opening, tie receiving means on each side of the opening, and a removable tie extending across the side opening from one receiving means to the other adjacent the water level.

7. Apparatus of the character described comprising a body having a top and side walls cooperating to form a working chamber, the chamber having an opening at the bottom and also having an opening in a side, a closure for theside opening, and a tie carried by the closure and extending across the opening and securing the chamber portions on opposite sides thereof together.

8. Apparatus of the character described comprising a body having a top and side walls 00- operating to form a working chamber, the chamber having an opening at the bottom and also having an opening in a side, a closure for the side opening, a tie carried by the closure extending across the side opening, and sockets having flared openings secured to the body and adapted to engage the end portions of the tie.

9. Apparatus of the character described comprising a body having a top and side walls cooperating to form a working chamber, the chamber having an opening at the bottom and also having an opening in a side, a tie extending across the side opening, and sockets secured to the body and adapted to engage the end portions of the tie, the tie being adjustable as to length.

10. Apparatus of the character described comprising a body having a top and side walls c0- operating to form a working chamber, the chamber having an opening at the bottom and also having an opening in a side, a tie extending across the side opening, sockets secured to the body and adapted to engage the 'end portions of the tie, and a closure for the side opening, the tie being carried by and movable with the closure.

11. Apparatus of the character described comprising a body having a top and side walls cooperating to form a working chamber, the chamber having an opening at the bottom and also having an opening in a side, a vertically slidable door for the side opening, sockets secured to the body at opposite sides of the door, and. a tie carried by and movable with the door, the tie having portions adapted to be engaged by the sockets when the door is in closed position.

ERNEST M. WICHERT. 

